A preliminary hearing is scheduled today for 18-year-old Berkley Sutton of Shellbark Road, East Wheatfield Township, on a single third-degree felony count of endangering the welfare of children. She is one of two young women accused of allowing a two year-old boy to vape from an e-cigarette device last month at the toddler’s home in Saint Clair Township, outside of Seward.
Police were alerted to the January 9th incident at a home on Jan-L Street when someone saw a video of the scene on Snapchat and called the Safe2Say Something tip line. Sutton was visiting her 17-year-old friend as the friend babysat for the child. The criminal complaint says the girls watched as the boy took a Juul vaping device from a nightstand and tried to inhale from it. He couldn’t do it correctly, so police say the 17-year-old sat down on the floor and helped him by putting the device to his mouth.
Sutton is accused of failing to intervene and in fact shooting the video, and she and the 17-year-old then laughed about it as the boy coughed. The device contained only nicotine and the boy’s parents were not aware of the incident.
No charges have been announced against the 17-year-old, whose name has not been released because she is a juvenile. Both are United High School students.
Sutton’s hearing is scheduled for 9 o’clock this morning before District Judge Denise Thiel in Ligonier.
